Researcher

Project Details

Rationale for research

Prolonged time to diagnosis is associated with poorer survival for many common cancers. People from culturally diverse, migrant and/or minority populations tend to have lower participation in screening programs and present with more advanced disease, which negatively impacts their treatment and prognosis. This research aims to address this disparity by facilitating timely diagnosis of cancer in CaLD communities.

Objectives

The objective of this program of research is to identify CaLD groups with the greatest disparity and to facilitate timely cancer diagnosis through developing and implementing cancer awareness campaigns in these groups.

Study Design

Literature reviews are being conducted We are modifying and administering the Australian version of the International Cancer Benchmarking Project (ICBP) in Chinese, Arabic and Vietnamese populations. We are also conducting a qualitative study exploring symptom awareness and patient factors influencing help seeking for a cancer diagnosis in Vietnamese speaking Australians. These data are informing a community-based participatory research study which is developing a community-based campaign to raise awareness of cancer symptoms in CaLD communities in Australia.

Participants

200 participants from Chinese, Arabic and Vietnamese backgrounds will participate in the survey and 45 participants from Vietnamese speaking backgrounds with a recent diagnosis of breast, colorectal or lung cancer will participate in the interviews. The campaign will be developed with input from Vietnamese speaking people attending five focus groups, with approximately 20 participants each focus group.